This course will examine the relationship between gender, sex differences, and politics—defined broadly—in medieval Europe, exploring the ways in which systems of power mapped onto perceived sex differences and bolstered, reproduced, or authenticated those systems.

This course will focus on disabled bodies and the cultural forces that acted upon them, as represented in a variety of types of early Christian and medieval texts in Latin, French, and English. We will devote special attention to blindness because of its strong metaphorical associations in medieval Christian discourse.

Like all things human, emotions have a history, but it has not often been traced. Since we all have our own notions of “emotion,” early on participants will be introduced to current psychological theories and definitions. The group will then explore old and new narratives of emotions’ history.

Revisiting Foucault’s History of Sexuality through Medieval and Early Modern Sources

This seminar will focus on rereading Foucault’s History of Sexuality (both the three published volumes as well as additional published materials intended for a fourth volume) in relation to hagiographic narratives from the Late Antique, Old English, and Middle English traditions and to medieval and early modern literary texts on love in French (in translation).

One of the most important turning points in the history of Christianity—arguably the most important—was the conversion of Constantine in 312, which led to the toleration of Christianity and an alliance between Church and Empire.

The Anglo-Saxon Seminar: The Exeter Book: A Tenth-Century Old English Poetic Miscellany and its Contents
Thomas N. Hall, University of Illinois at Chicago
currently teaching at the University of Notre Dame

Transformations of Interpretation Theory: Boethius to Valla
Alan Perreiah, University of Kentucky
Participants: Don Marshall, University of Illinois at Chicago; James South, Marquette University; Shawn Welnak, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

The Anglo-Saxon Seminar: The Exeter Book: A Tenth-Century Poetic Miscellany and It’s Cultural Background
Thomas N. Hall, University of Illinois at Chicago
currently teaching at the University of Notre Dame